FOREST, FISH AXD GAME COMMISSIONER. 209 



of an expert guardian whose observations on every point concerning the 

 preserve have turned out to be very accurate indeed; and his observation 

 was confirmed by two of our own number and by several perfectly disinter- 

 d witnesses. Had the growth of the fish not been so extraordinarily 

 id, the question would never have arisen at all. It may be remarked in 

 passing that all these fish were taken with flies, the Parmachene Belle and 

 the Rube Wood being the favorites. 



The trout were all of a rather peculiar shape, having a very large girth 

 in proportion to their length — for instance, the five-pound trout measured 

 only eighteen and three-ouarter inches in length and fullv fifteen inches in 

 th. All the others were in about the same proportion. The}- were all 

 very fat, and on opening the largest ones nearly a handful of fat was found 

 about the intestines. 



We see no way of accounting for this extraordinary growth, except in 

 the character and amount of food in these lakes. Of course, this has been 

 collecting through untold centuries with no fish to eat it, and when the 

 lakes were stocked there was a superabundance of food of all kinds. Having 

 no microscope, the contents of the stomachs were not examined, and this 

 deficiency we intend to remedy next summer. 



We think that all observers are agreed that the efforts to stock the 

 waters of the Adirondacks, and other regions, have been to a certain extent 

 a failure. Millions of young trout have been placed in such waters, and 

 only scores have reached maturity. If our theory about the growth of 

 these fish is the correct one, it would seem that fish culturists would do well 

 to try some method of increasing the food supply in lakes that are to be 

 stocked. Among the Adirondack guides the theory is almost universal 

 that there is no use trying to raise trout in waters that do not contain an 

 abundance of chubs, minnows and fish of such species as constitute the 

 food of trout. That this is a mistaken notion is plainly shown by observa- 

 tion of such waters as ours in Canada, in which no fish of any kind exist 

 except speckled trout. Manifestly trout can and do thrive, and thrive well, 

 on flies, Crustacea and the like, in the entire absence of all food fish except 

 the young of their own species. They undoubtedly are cannibals, for we 

 occasionally find a small trout in the stomach of a large one; and yet the 

 14 



